Facebook inks deal with mobile billing outfit Bango

08 February 2012 | 6119 views | 0

UK-based mobile billing and analytics firm Bango says it has signed an agreement to "provide payment services to Facebook".

In a brief statement, Bango says it believes it is "too early in the relationship to accurately forecast the level of business which it may generate" but shares in the firm soared nearly 40% on the news.

Details on the relationship have not been disclosed but Bango already has a deal in place with Research In Motion, enabling the BlackBerry maker's customers to pay for apps by tacking the cost onto their mobile bills. A similar agreement with Facebook is seen as a strong possibility.

Last week Facebook's S1 filing for its upcoming IPO revealed the growing importance of payments to its revenues, pulling in $557 million in 2011.

In the same document, the social network conceded that the increasingly popular mobile channel poses it a major risk factor because it currently does not not make much money, an issue that is expected to be partially rectified soon with the introduction of mobile advertising.